An Unexpected Arrival
by Gavin the Crocodile
Summary: Zak Hina is a typical slacker with lots of willpower but no motivation. After failing to get into college, he takes a trip to Japan with his Dad's coupon for free lodging at the luxurious Hinata Inn... but what if that inn is no longer an inn?
1. Prelude to Japan!

It was late in the night…or was it early in the morning? Not like it mattered, especially for Zak Hina, who was too troubled by his predicament that sleeping was no longer high on his priority list. It's not like he was stressed out or anything though, but rather he was concerned about his lack of stress.

"College, jobs, relationships…ugh, are they really that big of a deal?" Zak sighed lazily and turned over on his mattress. He had failed to get into his college of choice because he slacked too much in school, he had just been dumped by his recent girlfriend for "slacking" in their relationship, and he had just been fired for… well, it's obvious by now right?

But he didn't really care that much. Sure it was annoying, but that's all it was to him, just a slight annoyance. People were constantly troubled by this trait of his; when things should have gotten a reaction out of him he just yawned it off as mundane. His friends, family members, employers, etc. all knew him for his lenient style with no promises towards a future. That much was true, however, since he never really had a future planned out to start. It's not as though he expected to make it by just relaxing his entire life, but he never actually expected anything. He just didn't think that far ahead.

"This is pointless," Zak let out another yawn and reached for whatever was closest to him: a comic book about aliens, time travelers, and espers. This kind of thing interested him, the limits between reality and fantasy, life and death situations, nonsensical humor that wouldn't be funny unless you were reading about it or watching it on TV, and it all ended when he stopped reading or when a chapter finished. If only his life could be more like that….

************************************************************

"Ugh, son, you look horrible!" Zak's dad commented as he saw his son walk into the kitchen. A week had passed since Zak had lost his job, and with no way of paying off his already past due rent, he had no choice but to move back in with his parents for a while. Fortunately the Hina family was quite well off, something that may or may not have had to do with Zak's attitude, but his parents were hoping that would have changed once he moved out. It hadn't of course.

"Gee, thanks dad, and you're looking as spiffy as ever, too," Zak let out another yawn, and tried wiping away the bags from under his eyes. He poured himself some coffee and sat down with his father for a while, before trying to figure out what he was going to do for the day. Nothing came to mind.

"Well, Zak, have you considered looking for another job?" Zak's mother walked from a nearby room, and proceeded to feed the poodle she had just let in.

"Down Toye," Zak pet the small dog and quickly shooed it away before taking a sip from his drink once more. It was too hot. "Nah, not yet…maybe another week of loafing around would do me some good."

"Heh, I don't know son, I think it'd be a good idea for you to get out of the house a bit more. You've been cooped up for ages and it looks like you've been getting less and less sleep. Maybe you should…uh…I don't know, go on a trip or something," Zak's dad pulled out the daily newspaper and began reading some article on sports.

"A trip? Like to where? Besides, I don't know if that'd really be all that exciting."

"Of course it'd be!" Zak's mom piped in, "See new sights, meet new people, maybe get entangled in some crazy adventures! You should do it, go and find yourself out in the world!"

"Uh, find myself?"

"Yeah, that's it! Hang on a 'sec…" Zak's dad quickly rose out of his chair and dashed back towards his bedroom. It may have just been the 20-year-old's imagination but it seemed like his parents may not have wanted him living with them….

"Um, dad?" Zak questioned, but was only treated with a few curses, several crashing sounds, and some sparks coming from his father's room.

"Ugh, it was buried deeper in there than I thought!" Zak's dad grinned as he reentered the kitchen with smudge marks on his face.

"What…uh, where were you looking?" Zak gave his father an awkward kind of glare but decided not to put much into the matter and took another sip of his coffee.

"Ah, don't worry about it! But check this out, a free lodging at one of the greatest inn's I've ever been to!" He held up a large coupon, obviously worn in age, but still in prime condition.

"Hinata Inn? Japan?!" Zak read aloud in surprise.

"Yup, the owner took a liking to me, probably because of my last name…hmm, come to think of it, that's where I met your mother!"

"Oh, you're not going to tell him the story about that annex thing, are you?" Zak's mother smiled at his father, and the two of the chuckled softly to each other, obviously reminiscing about their younger years.

"Uh…well, Japan's kind of out of the way, you know? And I don't know, do these coupon things still work?"

"Of course they do! It's a month's free lodging anytime! There's no expiration!"

"Um… alright then…"


	2. Dissappointment!

"Ugh, serious jet-lag," Zak groaned after taking his first few steps into a Japanese airport. He shook his head a few times and proceeded to look for his luggage. There was a bit of trouble dealing with the security guards for a short while, but he eventually passed by and made it outside where he took his first taxi cab into the mysterious country of Japan.

It was a different experience than what he expected, but nothing was too out of the ordinary. Although it definitely wasn't as "anime-ish" as he had hoped it to be, there were still quite a few noteworthy events going on. There was an obviously staged cosplayer battle, some cool advancements in technology he had never seen before in a bunch of shops, plenty of street vendors, and the closer to his destination he noticed that more and more inns were popping up.

"Uh, hey Mr. cabdriver, could you take me to this place?" Zak pulled out the piece of paper his dad had given him and turned it over to the driver.

"Hinata Inn? Heh, are you sure that's where you want to go? I've been hearing some pretty crazy rumors about that place recently," the driver grinned at Zak and handed the boy back his coupon.

"Uh, yeah, I kind of don't have anywhere else to go," Zak scratched his cheek and tried to see what he could make of the driver's statement. He wanted to ask what kind of rumors, but the driver cut him off with another remark.

"I don't know if you'll be getting what you're looking for, but I'll drop you off there if you want."

"That'll be good, thanks," Zak gave a weak smile and decided to leave their conversation at that. Fortunately it wasn't much longer before they arrived and Zak was forced to walk the rest of the way. It was just a tediously long staircase, but the farther Zak traveled up it, the farther away the end seemed to become.

A good amount of time was spent on those steps, but once he made it, there lay the Hinata Inn, a marvelous structure several stories high and spread out farther than Zak cared to examine. It seemed a bit old, but hey, a free hotel was a free hotel, right?

So with this kind of thinking, Zak strolled over to the front of the building, tried knocking on the door only to realize that it slid open, and walked in. He knew a bit of Japanese customs and took his shoes off before going any further in, but after that, he was lost.

"Heh, wouldn't it be funny if I tried peeking in one of the rooms and ended up finding someone or something…" Zak thought to himself and laughed silently. "And I ended up getting into trouble, only so I could run away, be yelled at, and chased all over the building? Actually that would probably be annoying…"

"That sounds like something out of a manga," came a completely different voice from behind Zak. The boy yelped and quickly spun around, only to find a young woman, perhaps his own age smiling at him with half closed eyes and a sort of laid-back, goofy expression. If he didn't know better, he could have sworn she was drunk.

"Uh, manga…yeah, I read something like that in one of the manga I have," Zak coughed into his hand.

"Heh, heh, y'know, yer kinda cute! But what's a fellah like you doing around here? If Naru or Motoko were to have found you first, who knows what could have happened!" The girl went into a loud giggling fit that seemed a bit maniacal.

"Oh, is that right…?" Zak turned his head in response. There was no one at the front office, but where had this girl appeared from? And was she a lodger or perhaps a worker? "Um, actually, I was wondering about staying here for a while," Zak quickly reached into his pocket to pull out the coupon, but the girl burst out laughing before he managed to get it.

"Stay here? Oh that's a good one! Ha ha ha…oh wait, is it something to do with what Kanako did? I thought we scrapped that whole…hmm why don't you just talk to the manager? Hey Keitarrrrooooo!" The lively girl had stopped giggling only to start mumbling to herself, and then finally called someone over. It was a young man with glasses, someone who looked like a complete loser, but still had an air of optimism and an aura of potential that had shown just how far he had come. Either that or the aura of a pervert.

"Huh? Um, what is it Kitsune? I was just about to…oh, hello," The young man, apparently named Keitaro, said after noticing Zak's presence.

"Uh, hi. Are you the inn manager?" Zak asked, while finally being able to pull out his piece of paper.

"Inn manager? Um, I think you're mistaken…"

"No way, of course it's an inn!" A completely different, somewhat energetic but also monotonous, voice was echoed. It only took a second before the voice was accompanied by a flash of black and a girl in gothic-style clothing. A gale picked up in her presence, slightly knocking Zak back, but he reacted accordingly and took a strange looking stance with his right knee up and his arms held out. "Hmm, what are you doing?" The girl looked at Zak with a puzzled glance.

"Uh, well, it's a defensive thing I kind of developed, you know from my own personal training." Zak quickly lowered his leg.

"Training? You practice martial arts or something?" Keitaro asked this time.

"Well, no not really, but I figured that it would be a good idea to learn for my trip to Japan! I practiced like the characters in my manga in case giant robots or aliens or a samurai were to appear!" Zak raised his fists up with passion, proving the dedication he had, while Keitaro and the girl in black simply stared. Kitsune, on the other hand, burst out laughing again.

"Bwa ha ha, you can't be serious, right?" She continued chuckling, and just as suddenly as she arrived, she walked back out.

"Um, Kitsune…oh whatever. Isn't that a stereotype of…I don't know, something?" Keitaro asked with a frown. He still wasn't quite sure what was going on at this point, but before he could say anything else, a loud ruckus could be heard from the other room.

"Suu, get this thing off of me!"

"But you promised you'd play tag!"

"This isn't what I thought you meant!"

And then a petite young girl with an innocent face and short hair ran into the room, only to be followed by another young girl with dark skin and a healthy looking expression. The only thing that stood out about them, however, was that the short haired girl had tears in her eyes and was wearing some kind of green alien outfit with buzzing antennas while the energetic girl was in some type of robot outfit that was shooting out missiles.

"Whoa, hit the deck!" Keitaro shouted, grabbing Zak and forcing him to the ground as missiles flew in every direction.

"That's enough out of you guys!" came yet another loud voice, this one full of a malice that seemed to cut through the air. Before any of the missiles could have exploded, they were all split in two and softly fell to the floor in a heap. Amidst the wreckage, another girl had appeared, this one sporting long black hair tied into a ponytail, casual clothing and what looked to Zak to be a samurai sword. "I can't get any of my studying done!" And with that, the girl took her leave.

"Uh…I think I need to increase my training…." Zak spoke unenthusiastically, before realizing Keitaro was leaning on him in an awkward manner. "Ugh, get off!" He curled up and kicked the older male away from him, and then rose to his feet.

"Ow! Ugh, sorry…wait, so what were you here for again?" Keitaro rubbed where chest had been kicked, and then looked over at Zak.

"Silly big brother! He came to check into our hotel! He'll be our first real guest! After you, I mean…" The only girl left clung on to her "brother" while she talked, but he didn't seem to share her interest.

"I thought we dismissed that whole idea? Um, look, actually I don't think I caught your name," Keitaro looked at Zak once more.

"It's Zak," he replied shortly.

"Right, okay then Zak, I'm sorry, but this isn't really an inn at the moment, so I'm afraid you'll have to find lodging elsewhere."

"Huh? But isn't this the Hinata Inn?" Zak took his scrap of paper and handed it to Keitaro.

"What's this? 'A free month's lodging at Hinata Inn, good anytime?' Where'd you get this?" Keitaro asked, obviously even more confused than it would seem possible. He quickly stole a glance at his sister, but she simply shrugged with an emotionless expression.

"What? It didn't expire or anything did it?" Zak asked, not sure what he would do if it had. He had set his hopes on this hotel after hearing what his dad had told him, and he only had enough money for souvenirs and emergency funds to get back home.

"I, uh, well I don't know if I should say that it expired, although technically I guess it has…you see, Hinata Inn has become Hinata House, an all-girls dorm."

"An all….what?" Zak couldn't believe his ears. Was this somehow better? Wait, no of course not, why would he be allowed to sleep in an all girls dorm just because of a stupid old ticket? But then again this guy was here…

"Yeah, sorry Zak, but we can't really let you stay here since we're not renting rooms out and you're not a girl that plans on living here."

"Ah, I see…"

"Trust me though, the girls here are a real pain! Some of them are real macho and crazy too! I wouldn't be surprised if…"

"Surprised if what?" Another new girl showed up, this one dressed nicely in a loose sweater and a long skirt. She had long brown hair with two strands that stuck out like a pair of antennae. At the moment, she had Keitaro in what looked to be a deadlock.

"Na-Naru!" The helpless boy struggled, but soon broke free.

"You weren't doing something perverted again to whoever was at the door right?" Naru put her hands on her hips and gave Keitaro a disapproving look.

"I haven't done anything! You don't need to check up on me every second!"

"Hee hee, alright then, I'll let it go. Now come on, I need you to fix something for me!"

"Ugh, fine. Oh, right, Zak. Look, I wish I could help you out, but this place isn't an inn open to the public anymore. Hinata City is a huge place full of hotels and tourist attractions though, so go and explore for a while. Good luck!" And with that, Keitaro took his leave. His sister bowed her head down to Zak in an apologetic manner, and then quickly followed suit of her brother.


	3. Acceptance?

"Ah, but mister!"

"I'm sorry, but I really can't help you."

And so another hotel had rejected Zak. This was basically what had been going on since Hinata House turned his free pass down; Zak would check out a hotel, find out it was full, check out another hotel, find out the price was inflated due to some holiday that was apparently going on, and then move on.

"Ugh, 13 hotels, and I couldn't find a single reasonable one! At this rate it looks like I'll have to use up my special funds…although at the price rates so far it should only get me through the night! Oh…" Zak would have complained some more, but his stomach growling served as an interruption and he realized just how tired he was. He had been searching for over three hours, and it didn't help that he had trouble reading Japanese. "I should probably grab something to eat…but at this rate it may hurt me in the long run if I buy anything….gah!" Zak grabbed his hair and started pulling. It had been a while since he had gotten this frustrated, but he did feel more alive than he had been recently. Still, it couldn't exactly be considered much of a good thing: he had no food, no place to sleep, and he was in a foreign country. Maybe it was true that planning ahead could get someone far in life, though it's not like such information would suddenly help him out.

Not willing to waste any more time (nor being able to afford it), Zak stood up from the park bench he had been sitting on and prepared to check out a few more hotels. He only needed to make it for a month and he'd be home free! Perhaps he could find some odd jobs or something…but who ever heard of a guy working on vacation?

"…ERRVEERRTTTT!" Zak thought he heard someone's voice in the distance echoing throughout Hinata City. It sounded like someone was screaming _Pervert_ at the top of their lungs, but no one around seemed to take notice. Zak concluded that it must have just been his imagination, so he let out a yawn and began to walk. That's when he heard someone screaming, looked up to see a strange figure falling, and then passed out before he could put it all together.

* * *

"Is he awake?"

"Yeah I think he's waking up!"

"Suu, don't get so close!"

Zak slowly opened his eyes to see four beautiful girls hovering over him…and Keitaro. "Did…did I die?" He asked, before closing his eyes and trying to remember what had happened. Maybe he had a fitting end, after all, it's not like his life mattered at this point. But why would some guy he just met be there?

"Heh, nah you were just knocked out for a few hours!" The energetic dark skinned girl from before grinned.

"Suu! Well, anyways, this idiot over here fell on your head and knocked you out cold," the older girl with antennas on her head, pointed at Keitaro.

"Hey, if you hadn't punched me, Naru, then I wouldn't have…"

"Well if you hadn't have latched onto my skirt!"

"Hey, guys, calm down, please!" The youngest girl with short hair, the one in the alien costume from before, piped in.

"Oh, you're right, sorry Shinobu,' Naru sighed.

"Shouldn't you be apologizing to him?"

"No, you should be! You're the reason why he was knocked out!"

"Um…" Zak looked from head to head, trying to find some sanity within the bunch. There was the loud girl with hair strands that resembled antennas, her name appeared to be Naru and while she was stunning, she also seemed to be bossy and aggressive. She had somehow punched Keitaro into the sky so that he would hit Zak on the head…but had she done it from the inn? No way, that'd be humanly impossible.

Zak turned to the next girl, Suu was what she was called. Her speaking was a bit strange, and while the other girls definitely showed some type of abnormal energy, she was the most hyperactive of them all. Since he had woken up, he hadn't seen her sit still once.

Then there was the short haired girl. He didn't know her name yet, but she seemed modest and reserved, a bit out of place in Zak's opinion. But he didn't have much to go off of for her, so maybe she fit in better than he could have imagined.

And finally there was the last girl, the dark haired "sister" to the manager of the house. She had been staring at him for quite some time, and Zak was beginning to grow unsettled from it.

"You're from America, aren't you?" She suddenly asked.

"Huh? Uh, yeah, I am. How'd you know?" Zak wasn't really sure how to respond to her. She was pretty cute too, even among the other rowdy girls he had come across so far in this house, but her monotone and otherwise quiet attitude didn't really strike him as pleasant.

"Hmm…I've been around," the girl turned her head as she spoke, "Americans are really quite easy to spot out, especially if they're on a trip."

"Ah, oh, I see…" Zak took a look at his clothes again. He didn't see anything striking that would set him apart from anyone else in the room, besides the fact that he wouldn't look good in a dress, though neither would Keitaro.

"So how has your search for residence been?" The girl begun a new conversation.

"Oh yeah, I hope it wasn't too inconveniencing for you to not be taken in here!" Keitaro frowned.

"Uh, no, not really… I mean, well, it has been a bit difficult…"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, it is Golden Week now, huh?" Keitaro scratched his head and seemed to be in thought.

"I guess so, at least that's what the other hotel manager's have been telling me."

"Wait a second, just what's going on?" The girl, Naru piped in now. Apart from Keitaro and his sister, none of the others really had a clue to what was being discussed, or why the guy apparently knew them both.

"Well, you see, this guy apparently had a coupon from my grandma that let him stay at Hinata Inn free of charge…."

"But this isn't Hinata Inn, it's a girls dormitory!"

"Yeah, I know that now," Zak stated, while rising to his feet. He hadn't noticed where he was yet, but suddenly realized that he must've been placed in an extra room. _Man they must have so many of these, yet I can't even borrow one…_ the hopeless boy thought to himself with a sigh. "Uh, I want to thank you guys for your….hospitality." Zak tried bowing out of courtesy, but felt he was doing something wrong, so he turned to leave.

"Um, sempai, don't you think we should do something?" The youngest girl spoke again.

"Hee hee, what's wrong with letting him stay? He's got a ticket right?" Suu smiled as she swung from some kind of handle on the roof. Zak quickly turned around at the mentioning of his predicament, and suddenly felt a ray of hope shine through him. Would he be allowed to stay after all?

"No way! It's bad enough that we've got this sleazy pervert around, but another guy? Hah! And just think what would happen if Motoko found out!" The girl, Naru, seemed to be some kind of yin to Zak's yang. If he had his facts straight, then she would have also been the reason why his head was in pain and why he was here again in the first place, though maybe Keitaro had something to do with it as well.

"Heh, don't worry about it, I'll be fine," Zak raised his hand in response. "Actually, I'm really used to this kind of thing, it's just my own fault for not thinking ahead, as usual."

"Huh? What're you talking about?" Naru frowned this time, while the other girls seemed to be quite interested. If Zak hadn't been so rundown at the moment, he probably would have noticed that these residents apparently enjoyed gossip, or at the least, a good story.

"Well, I didn't get into the college I wanted to because I hadn't cared about my grades, and I relaxed too often at my old job so I was fired, and then with my ex-girlfriend…" Zak let out a sigh before realizing what he had just spilled on himself. "Ah, don't think about any of that though! Just, uh, pretend that I didn't say it, I mean it's not really that big of a deal…" Zak looked up, a bit embarrassed now, but was shocked to see the close up faces of Keitaro and Naru covered in overly dramatic tears.

"You failed to get to college…"

"And your life is down in the gutters now…"

"So you decided to take a trip!" The two of them took turns speaking, and then yelled in unison.

"Trust me kid," I know exactly where you're coming from!" Keitaro's tears instantly dried up as a twinkle appeared in his glasses. He tried to pat Zak on the back, but the "kid" didn't let him.

"You know, you don't look that much older than me," Zak commented with an annoyed expression.

"Still, it looks like you've gotten yourself into trouble," Naru came up this time and managed to succeed in patting the boy's back. "Hey, you're the one that wanted to turn this place into an inn, right Kanako?"

The sister of Keitaro looked up from her teacup, and seemed taken aback. It looked as though the three other girls had lost interest in Zak, brought in a tea set and a stove, and warmed up some drinks.

"Um, well that was my intention when I first moved in here…" The girl, now given the name of Kanako, nodded.

"Yeah, and you even taught us how to service and everything!" Naru grinned.

"Uh…service…?" Keitaro's eyes glazed over for a second as though he were imagining something.

"What're you thinking about pervert! Don't start taking Kitsune's ideas!" Naru didn't hesitate to grab Keitaro and slam him down onto the nicely set table, furthering his injury while the burning hot tea kettle poured all over his head. The other girls were nonchalant about the situation, though, and had simply grabbed their cups before the impact and continued to sip away.

_Don't mess with her_, was the first thought that came across Zak's mind, as he took another look at the ferocious woman. She had already retaken her cute demeanor, however, and seemed overly welcoming to Zak. It disturbed him greatly.

"It'd be fun to get a new guy to play around with!" Suu shouted energetically. Shinobu smiled meekly beside her.

"Well, if he has no where else to go, this seems like the right thing to do…" She spoke softly.

"Right, and we'll be one more step closer to being an actual inn again! Things will finally work out big brother!" Kanako seemed to grow a gleam similar to her brother's in her eyes.

"Ah…right…" Keitaro stumbled through the wreckage his body had created.

"So it's fine with you, right Zak?" Naru smiled once more. Zak didn't know if he could possibly refuse.


End file.
